>> nothing i said in the past should be any indication of my positions in the future. >> i expect any day he'll be offered a job as a chief contortionist at cirque dusolei. >> i have a record of achieving it. >> i say what i mean and mean what i say. >> i'm not familiar precisely with exactly what i said but i stand by what i said whatever it was. good afternoon. we are just over 24 hours until the first polls close tomorrow night. at this moment we're awaiting the president at a rally in columbus, ohio, with the boss

performing right now. not to be outdone, mitt romney has an event in columbus himself just a few hours from now featuring the marshall tucker band. tough choice there for columbus voters. and if the polls are any indication, america is split down the middle in our new poll. the president just edges romney 48% to 47% among likely voters. well within the margin of error. another look at polls confirms this race is pretty tight. with that in mind, the final day of campaigning is a whirlwind tour. mitt romney is at his second event in virginia today. and he said real change will begin with his victory tomorrow. >> the question of this election comes down to this. do you want four more years of the last four years? or do you want real change? >> virginia of course a state that mitt romney desperately wanted to have locked up months

ago. the old dominion very tight. but it is far from the only tossup state and it was at a massive 18,000 strong rally at madison, wisconsin, that the president fought to defend his mantle of change you can believe in in stark contrast to the shifty change of expedience. >> i said i'd end the war in iraq. and i ended it. i said i'd pass health care reform. i passed it. so when i say, wisconsin, that i know what real change looks l e like, you've got cause to believe me because you've seen me fight for it. you've seen the scars on me to prove it. you've seen the gray hair on my head. to show you what it means to fight for change. >> indeed we have. and we will bring you the president's remarks live when he speaks momentarily from

columbus, ohio. let's get right to our fabulous panel. ana marie cox is here with us in new york. richard wolffe is vice president and executive editor of msnbc.com and joy reed. joy, this has been going on for six years. we're still trying to understand who mitt romney is. we've employed psychologists, nobody knows. do you know who he is? >> he's the guy opening for the marshall tucker band in ohio. what i've come to the conclusion of is mitt romney is who he said he is. he's a businessman. i believe he's in the business of sales and marketing. that means whatever crowd or audience is in front of him at that moment, mitt romney is for whatever they're for. if you change your mind, he'll change it with you. >> so he has no core convictions. >> i don't agree with that. i think he has one strong core belief which is mitt romney should be president of the united states and do whatever it takes to make that happen.

>> so he has the conviction of ambition. republicans seem to be talking down their expectations today. talking about the polls, talking about difficulties with the hurricane and the storm and so on. isn't the simple fact that mitt romney had a little bit of momentum after the first debate and for four weeks he's not done a single interview, not spoken to anybody, and his whole campaign has been risk adverse. today same stump speech. i could have repeated it from four weeks ago to a teleprompter. >> it was the same stump speech he used as he closed out the failed republican nomination four years ago. he actually used the change slogan. he had change printed up on his slogans because it was working for this guy barack obama. that is the romney pattern, right? if you at first don't succeed, just keep trying. >> or you plagiarize. >> on the republican side there are just too many polls that put

them down. however, there are many republicans at this point especially those on the romney campaign who when they see tens of thousands of people screaming out romney's name start to have these images of them moving into the white house. that's natural. it happened with the kerry people in 2004. there are people who still have not recovered from that experience. because you really do think it's within reach only one point, two points means the difference between having a career or not. >> ana marie, i read your column. you say you are freaking out about a romney presidency. this is understandable since you probably lose control of your own body and your own health care. but also does the nation really want a president who's going to slash the social safety net to pieces, probably put us into another war. is that what we want? >> well, i don't think it is. to the extent that people are voting for romney. i think it's because they believe he's changeable. he may be the president that

they want him to be if that's what they want him to be. i think that america is really reluctant to let go of the progress its made. to borrow from the obama campaign and martin luther king jr., we arc towards justice and progress. and i think that women specifically do not want to give up the process that we've made. we do not want to turn the clock backwards. i maintain that gallup poll that shows reproductive rights the number one thing in this election is one of the most important polls of this cycle. >> and maybe devastating for romney. absolutely. joy, we've got word this afternoon that romney is going to stop in cleveland and pittsburgh working until the polls close. i mean, pennsylvania? really? >> yeah. >> you tell me. >> i know. this is the great white whale of the cycle. darn it if they just get a few more folks in person pennsylvania they're going to do it. the problem is that philadelphia exists. that's the problem. is there are so many urban

voters and younger voters which have come in whether it's in the college towns and in the philadelphia suburbs that pennsylvania is a state that's going for barack obama. i'm fairly confident in assuring the romney folks of that. i think also what the romney people are doing, it's a head fake. they want to convince the media that this idea of momentum that started like three weeks ago is still true. that he still has movement and he has so much momentum, he's going to states that are obama states and take those too. >> isn't that also true, richard, with the advertising spend? because they're spending huge amounts of money because they've got a lot of money and there's nowhere else to spend it. you can't buy advertising in some states, there's no space. >> that is true. you can say that's an opportunity because the obama folks have not bought up all the advertising in pennsylvania. coming back to joy's point, it isn't just a head fake. if you believe the ohio polls and maybe there are people in

the romney campaign that don't believe that. you've got to pull out one of the big democratic states away from the president. and that means wisconsin or pennsylvania. and some sane people in the romney campaign who believe those ohio polls, they're just too kwiconsistent and too far o of reach, then you have a make a play somewhere else. pennsylvania, why not? i mean, it's right into the other. >> you've come down from your perch in that rare of the country. >> yes. the square states in the middle. >> what do you predict for the president's firewall in terms of wisconsin, iowa, and ohio? >> ohio just looks so certain to me. i know that there are a lot of people in the conservative side, the republican side that refuse to believe these things. i heard polthers as one to describe them. people tweeting things like i don't believe polls that fly in the face of all other evidence as though there was evidence besides polls.

i think ohio's going to -- there's tears of laughter coming at the play for minnesota. i live in minnesota. no. i'm sorry. and wisconsin looks like it's pretty good for obama too. these are states that these are not radical states. these are not states that have the scary liberals that want to take over health care. these are people that genuine swing voters and genuinely want to do the best they can for their country. >> they see that as being the president. >> yes. we heard pit bull has endorsed for president. as a character you've watched. you've watched mr. romney, you've been present at a number of rallies. what would you say both of you, joy first. what would you say his performance has been as an individual? one of the things we know about this president is we know him.

we know he's a cautious man. he's orderly. he's cerebral. what impression do you have of romney as a character? >> you know, it's interesting. i think mitt romney is a cautious man, too, in a lot of ways. in talking about himself as a person, i think he's very reluctant to reveal a lot about himself. the only time i've seen mitt romney truly feel free and excited is when he starts to talk about business. that's when you start to see mitt romney kind of light up. you can tell that he's really in love with the idea of business. he's excited about it. other than that you don't get a sense of him. you don't really understand who he is because he doesn't seem to want to reveal that. he just seems to truly love business and to believe. i think he does sincerely believe that his class, his economic class is what can and should save the country. >> you think he's sort of a ceo in personality terms? >> i think so too. i think there's a private tragedy to mitt romney. it's hard to feel sorry for someone with so much money, but

i think he genuinely doesn't understand why his argument isn't working. he genuinely thinks his experience should be obviously transferable to government. that it shouldn't be a hard choice. so i think that's why you get him repeating the same things over and over an over. >> even when it's untrue. >> yes. but he thinks it should work. >> richard, his personality. >> i don't know that i could put my finger on his personality. he has -- he's at least not as wooden as he used to be in his delivery. he's playing off the crowds. which is an improvement. same when kerry moved from the death march to his stump speech to somehow engaging with human beings. really he's missed the great opportunity that he had which was to run as the former governor of massachusetts. so the ceo argument, he may think of himself as a ceo and thinks that tracks better with the economy as it is today. but his real calling card is that he was chief executive of a

state but he can't talk about that because that's way too moderate for where he positioned himself to be. that is one of the many tragedies about mitt romney's candidacy. he cannot even be the politician that he used to be never mind the human being he may be. >> wow and on that point. thank you all very much. next, we are awaiting jay-z as a warm-up act for the president live from columbus, ohio. stay with us as our special election coverage from democracy plaza continues.

both candidates are out in force today this final day before americans hit the polls. mitt romney wrapping up a speech in virginia with his wife ann. and the president with jay-z and bruce springsteen as he warm-up is expected to speak from columbus, ohio, at any moment. although the election is almost upon us, you'd be thinking it has already passed because there are already now voting problems in florida. early voters were forced to wait up to seven hours. when election officials decided to open doors on sunday to accommodate voters discouraged by the long lines, democrats had to file a lawsuit after the republican mayor ordered them closed. joining me now from washington is karen finney a former dnc director, msnbc political analyst. and here with me is the great eugene robinson. welcome to both of you. gene, these long lines in

florida are there because rick scott decided to cut the early voting days almost in half. 2.5 million people have voted early. yet we're expected to believe this has got nothing to do with politics. what is this man doing? >> well, there are two american traditions here at work. one is vote k problems in florida. this is something we like to do. and the second is republicans trying to restrict the franchise. if you can narrow the electorate and keep those democratic people, the system and throughout this election cycle we're seeing more of it. >> eugene, you use a voice that sounds accepting. this is appalling. >> i don't mean to. it is appalling. we've seen it before. >> people died in 1965 for the right to vote and now they're being prevented from doing so. >> exactly. exactly.

>> karen, in ohio the big story is the states provisional ballot. the republican in charge of elections there has issued an order which appears to be contrary to state law that could throw out a lot of provisional ballots. is this what it's come to? >> pretty much. their goal was since we can't expand our electorate let's see how much we can constrict the democratic electorates. it's disgusting what's going on. you and i have talked about this, martin. in addition to all these shenanigans at the polls, with the ballots themselves, there are people who will have their clipboards and will go up to people and try to challenge them. and if you're a senior citizen and you don't know that you have a right to say to that person i don't have to show you my i.d., i mean, that's the kind of intimidation that we're going to be seeing. it's going to be messy. we're already seeing it. we know tomorrow is going to be messy. i am so encouraged by the people

standing in line for up to eight and nine hours to vote. it shouldn't be that way in america, but god bless those folks willing to do it. >> absolutely. gene, fox and friends mr. brian kylmeade had a slip of the tongue today. >> republican or democrat, the best thing you could do is have a presence there. to show -- maybe intimidate people to play it straight, correct? >> well intimidation -- >> not just that. just go i'm watching. >> intimidation. there it was. >> yes. intimidation is actually against the law, but yeah. >> why do republicans feel the need and conservative commentators feel the need to describe the process of voting in such confrontational terms? it's not a boxing fight. >> they don't believe some people should have this right to have the right to vote. >> they still don't. >> they believe the vote should -- is essentially for those who will vote the correct

way. and for them not for -- i include myself, us. and that attitude dies hard. but the thing that's encouraging to me about this year is that those of us who want to expand the franchise are prepared. we saw this coming. we have been dealing with it a lot of the more restrictive laws. >> you've written about it extensively. warned the public about this. >> and a lot of the restrictive laws have been block eed by the courts in many states which is a good thing. >> karen, let me read you something lindsey graham told politico about potential mitt romney loss. and i'm quoting him. if i hear anybody say it was because romney wasn't conservative enough, i'm going to go nuts. we're not losing 95% of african-americans and 2/3 of hispanics and voters under 30 because we're not being hard ass enough. karen, your view of that? >> that's exactly right.

and i predict that if president obama is re-elected on wednesday, we are going to see a freakout by the right wing as they realize there simply aren't enough white people in this country to win a presidential election as we've been telling them for a long time now. yeah. lindsey graham actually gets this. the message that the republican party should be taking from this is not to how do we move farther to the right but how do you come up with a conservative agenda that actually is inclusive of more of the american people. consistently, i mean, that's a lot of the dog whistle politics we've heard in the last couple days. trying to appeal to a shrinking base. it doesn't work in a country like the united states anymore. >> whatever happens tomorrow, smart republicans realize this. they realize this year they have essentially tried to capture a bigger part of a shrinking electorate. a shrinking white male electorate. and they hope to win that way. they realize they can't possibly win national elections that way going forward.

they're going to have to expand the party or they go the way of the wind. >> very quickly, karen. >> one other things i think the republicans may realize in the aftermath is all these voter suppression tactics have had the opposite effect. people have been more mobilized -- >> hang on. let's wait for the results of the election. i'm happy to accept what you say. karen finney and eugene robinson. stay with us. more from democracy plaza in a moment. but first let's take listen as jay-z warms up in ohio with the president almost ready to take the stage. ♪ ♪ ♪ because i'm young and and black ♪ ♪ do i look like a mind reader i don't know ♪ ♪ ♪

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[ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. welcome back to our studio here at democracy plaza perched above rockefeller center here in the heart of new york city. and the crisp air is only adding to the electricity of this moment as we move into the final 24 hours of this presidential election race. tomorrow night a giant map on the iconic rink will be lit in red and blue as the results come in. if you're in the new york city area, we invite you to come down to the plaza and watch as history unfolds before your very eyes. and of course if you can't be here in person, stay with us here on msnbc the place for politics and for the best in election coverage. stay with us. the hour is short. and the day's top lines are coming up. ♪

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more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. trade in any light string and get up to five bucks off the latest holiday leds. all for one and one for all. here are today's top lines. get out and vote. >> i will do anything to get you to go out and vote. i will personally give you a tattoo. i'll punch myself in the face. i'll do a dance. >> cleveland really does rock. >> hello, ohio. >> virginia is the best. >> turnout for me, colorado. >> des moines, iowa, welcome. >> i don't think it's going to be close in the electoral college. >> how secure is your mustache today? >> governor romney would win. >> the chief contortionist at cirque. >> just two more days.

>> we haven't promised to take from some people to redistribute to you. >> he's like a kid trying to outrun his shadow in the middle of the day. >> i am far more enthusiastic about president obama this time. >> i should ask him to be secretary of explaining stuff. >> to have a presence there to maybe intimidate people. >> well, intimidation is actually -- >> a regular monday, yes. >> give me your prediction. >> mitt romney will win. >> mitt romney knew about this storm. >> and he did nothing to stop it. >> i want to thank president obama for his fast and efficient assistance. i endorse you for president but if you come here, i will have you arrested. >> i'll be a good soldier. i'll vote for romney, but i'm going to hate it. >> you can't hold a man or woman to what he or she said at a republican primary debate. >> tomorrow we begin a new tomorrow. >> nothing i've said in the past should be any indication of my positions in the future. >> we'll win this election. we'll finish what we started.

we'll reaffirm the spirit that makes the united states of america the greatest nation on earth. >> let's get right to our panel now. we have two of the brightest and most beautiful people on this television network. alex wagner host of "now" and contributor jonathan capehart. alex, stop laughing. there's something serious we have to discuss. that is paul ryan. this is what he was caught saying on a conference call with some evangelicals sunday. the president's path compromises those values, those judeo-christian, western civilization values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place. why doesn't mr. ryan call him an islamic terrorist? >> he may as well. it's difficult to be both pathetic and outrageous at the same time, but mr. ryan has beautifully done that. this is a continuation of the narrative we have discussed which is trying to paint the president aed a kenyan

revolutionary outside the american mainstream. there are racial dog whistles here. religious dog whistles here. the fact this is paul ryan's closing argument in the final hours of this election is a sign of not only the desperation but the shameless transparency of this campaign. >> last week we learned of a romney/ryan robocall to voters in virginia that also attacked the president on religious grounds. we've had the bloviating ignoramus in the version of donald trump. we've had the serial adulterer, newt gingrich. all of them appearing to cut into this president. first it was he's from another place. now he believes something totally different. >> that he's not one of us. i think john sununu put it well when he uz with on a conference call ta the president needs to learn how to be an american. remember that.

and then had to walk it back. you know, as we've been talking about for at least two years maybe the entire term about how his critics, his adversaries, his opponents have been trying to delegitimize him as a person, him as an american, and him as president of the united states. and they're clearly doing this as a way to gin up enthusiasm among the base. but when you're a day out from the election and you're still trying to gin up enthusiasm in your base to go out not to necessarily vote for your guy, but to vote against the guy you really, really hate. is that how you really want to win? >> and can i say? if we're talking about judeo-chjudeo judeo-christians. it was paul ryan's budget that went on catholic bishops. they said this a not a moral document because it backs on the poor and the works class. >> in one letter they said this was akin to ayn rand and not

christ. >> if anyone is going against the grain of judeo-christian values it's in fact paul ryan. >> indeed. there have been attempts to defend the president. one is bill clinton. take a listen to this. >> as you can see, i have given my voice in the service of my president. >> now, i have to ask you. that's a former president referring to the current incumbent as my president. >> yeah. >> does that say to you that bill clinton knows what this game is, he knows what these republicans have been doing, and he's standing up for the president. >> he's standing up for the president on a lot of levels. there was a lot of tension between. president obama and president clinton in the 2008 campaign. you remember mitt romney tried many times and so did paul ryan

to drive a wedge between the president -- between the presidents and try to bear hug president clinton. but for president clinton to say this is my president, he's saying, listen. leave the guy alone. i know i'm the big dog. that's his nickname. he's the big dog here. >> or big bubba. >> or whatever his nickname is of late. he's my guy. he's our guy. let's re-elect him. >> alex, moving on and if i might put this question to you, how scared should women be of paul ryan? you've referred just now to the hypocrisy of his position and his budget, but we also now know more about his position in relation to women, contraception, and women's control and right over their own bodies. >> i think they should be somewhat terrified if they're fans of reproductive freedom and having control. yes. this is someone -- the blessing

of todd akin is he revealed, pulled back the velvet curtain on the wizard of oz that is the house republican caucus and the draconian legislation they've been passing while no one's been looking. paul ryan cosponsored some outrageous legislation as the house's gop wonder kind. the idea he's going to throw these out the window when they ascend to 1600 pennsylvania avenue is ludicrous. we know he will take a hand in shaping whatever mitt romney puts forward. so in so far as you care about having choice over your own body and discussions with ones doctor, women should be very scared. >> thank you both. as i said to our audience, you're the brightest and most people on this network. the president has just taken the stage there in columbus, ohio. and i think we will take a listen to him now. ♪

>> hello, columbus! hello, ohio! are you fired up? are you ready to go? fired up? ready to go? fired up? ready to go? give it up for jay-z. you know, it is an incredible -- it is an incredible honor to

have jay-z and bruce springsteen on the same bill. and, you know, not only are they all on my ipod, and yes the president has an ipod. but it's also because both of them tell an american story. now, jay-z -- i love you back. you know, i told jay-z the other day our lives are parallel a little bit. nobody i think would expect us to be where we are today when they had met us as younger men. both of us now have daughters. and both of us have wives who

are more popular than we are. and bruce springsteen, all the work he's done for this campa n campaign -- the boss. he just like jay, they tell the story of what our country is but also what it should be and what it can be. and what we need to fight for. and i'm going to be flying with bruce springsteen on the last day that i'll ever campaign. that's not a bad way to bring it home. with the boss. there are few other people i want to thank before we get started. one of the toughest fighters on behalf of working families that i know. your senator sherrod brown is in the house.

someone who will follow in his footsteps if you send her to congress, joyce beaty is here. your mayor, michael coleman is here. and give it up for your former governor and my friend ted strickland in the house. now, for the past week, all of us have been focused on what's been happening on the east coast. and one of the worst storms of our lifetime. and as a nation we've watched the harrowing images and we've been heartbroken by those who have been lost. and i had a chance to visit new jersey and talk to some of the families. every day i'm on the phone with

mayors and local officials. and what i've said to them and i think ohio you'll agree with me when i say this because i didn't just speak for me, i spoke for the country. is we will be with them every step of the way on the hard road to recovery. every step of the way. because that's what we do as americans. we will help them rebuild. and we'll carry on with the spirit that says no matter how bad a storm is, no matter how tough times may get, we're all in this together. we rise or fall as one nation and as one people. that spirit has guided this country along its improbable journey for more than two centuries. it's carried us through the trials and tribulations of the last four years. in 2008 we were in the middle of two wars and the worst economic crisis since the great

depression. today our businesses have created nearly 5.5 million new jobs. the american auto industry has come roaring back. home values are on the rise. we're less dependent on foreign oil than any time in the last 20 years. because of the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform, the war in iraq is over. the war in afghanistan is ending. al qaeda is on the path to defeat. osama bin laden is dead. we've made progress these last four years. we've made real progress, ohio, but the reason why we're here is because we've got more work to do. our work is not yet done. as long as there is a single american who wants a job and can't find one, our work is not yet done. as long as there are families anywhere in ohio, anywhere in the country working harder but

falling behind, we're not finished. as long as there's a child anywhere in this country who's in poverty and barred from opportunity, our fight goes on. our fight goes on, ohio. because this nation cannot succeed without a growing, thriving middle class and roads and paths of opportunity for everybody who's willing to work hard to get into the middle class. our fight goes on because america always does best when everybody gets a fair shot. and everybody does their fair share. and everybody plays by the same rules. that's what we believe. that's why you elected me in 2008 and that's why i'm running for a second term for president of the united states. now, ohio, tomorrow you've got a

choice to make although some of you already made the choice. how many have early voted around here? this is not just a choice between two candidates or two parties. it's a choice between two different visions of america. it's a choice between a return to the top-down economic policies that crashed our economy or a vision that says we've got to build a strong foundation based on a strong and growing middle class. an opportunity for everybody, not just some. as americans we honor the strivers and the dreamers, the risk takers, the business people, the free enterprise system, the greatest engine of growth and prosperity the world has ever known. that's what we believe in. but we also know that our system, our economy works best

when everybody's participating. not just some. when everybody has a chance to get a great education. when everybody has a chance to learn the skills they need to compete. our economy does best when we invest in the common enterprise of basic research to create new technologies and new industries and new jobs. we believe america's strongest when everybody can count on affordable health insurance. when everybody can count on medicare and social security in their golden years. we think our markets work best, our economy works best when there's some rules in place to protect our kids from toxic dumping and pollution. to protect consumers from being taken advantage of by unscrupulous credit card companies or mortgage lenders. and, you know, we also believe

by the way there's some things washington should not do. for example, we don't need a bunch of politicians trying to control health care decisions that women are perfectly capable of making for themselves. now, for four years we had a president who shared these beliefs. his name was bill clinton. and it's interesting. when he first came into office, his economic plan asked the wealthiest americans to pay a little more. so we could reduce our deficit and invest in the skills of our people. at the time the republican congress and a certain senate candidate by the name of mitt romney -- [ booing ] >> do boo. vote. -- don't boo. vote. vote.

you don't need to boo. >> the president there fired up in the battle ground state of ohio. on this the final day of the presidential campaign as americans prepare to hit the polls. stay with us. much more from democracy plaza when we come back.

the president is speaking at this very moment in columbus, ohio. one of several battle ground state that will determine this election. brad woodhouse joins us live from headquarters in chicago.

brad, i keep saying that the england soccer team is going to win the world cup. but unfortunately they haven't done so since 1966. do these romney supporters believe in auto suggestion that if you keep saying it, if you just keep saying it it'll come true. >> well, i guess so. i mean, look. i think they're trying to create a sense out there among their supporters that all hope is not lost. and we think this is going to be a close election. i mean, the indicators of late have been in our direction. we think the most encouraging indicators have been early voting in a host of states where lines are long in a place mostly democrats vote. we know from most of the actual numbers that we have beaten them in the early voting states like wisconsin, ohio, iowa. i understand what they're trying to do. they want their supporters to think there's still some hope. and we want our supporters to know the race could still be close and they need to get out to vote. early if they can, and if not

tomorrow. >> wisconsin is a state is the president won by 13%. yet today he traveled there to campaign one last time. is that because your campaign team is very concerned about wisconsin? >> well, no. it's not about being concerned about wisconsin. but as you know and i'm sure you've gone on like a lot of us have and done the various electoral paths. there are few sure signs to 270 electoral votes for the president than including wisconsin in that path. so locking down wisconsin is key. it's very smart politics. it's very strategic. he had a great event there today. we love wisconsin. >> and very briefly, if you will, we hear so much about the public polling. and of course we examine it. can you share with us what your internal polling is saying on the eve of this most important election? >> i want to have a job through the rest of the day tomorrow, so i won't tell you about our internal polling. but the lines in all of the polling are very solid for the

president. you know, we saw the national polls over the weekend move in his direction. now in the averages he's up in the national polls, the republicans have made a big deal when romney was up. he's not up anymore. so the trend has been strong in our direction. but right now the only thing we care about are votes. not polls. we just encourage people. go vote. visit got to vote.com if you need help in figuring out how to vote and where to vote. that's what we want people to do now. >> brad woodhouse. thank you. and thank you on behalf of our broadcast being with us throughout the last six months. we'll be right back with much more from democracy plaza. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is sheldon, whose long dy setting up the news

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it's time now to clear the air. the debates are long gone. the campaigning is almost over. both candidates agree the most important election in recent history is upon us. where do we stand? for the president there is slow but solid improvement in almost all the economic indices from consumer confidence to housing to the workplace. he promised to bring two wars to an end and he did. when nobody would offer a lifeline to an auto industry that was drowning he jumped in himself to save an industry that had almost died. he promised to reinvigorate the hunt for the man responsible for 9/11. and now the body of osama bin laden lies at the bottom of the north arabian sea. so that's the president of the united states. but what of his challenger mitt romney? well, we could spend hours trying to decipher what he really believes, but in the absence of true convictions, his

candidacy is probably best summed up by the number 47. mitt romney was born in 1947. and 47 is all you need to know about him in theory and in practice. in practice when he was governor of massachusetts, his state was 47th in job creation. 47th. he tells us now that a 20% tax cut will miraculously create jobs but economists say this is nonsense. and we know his record in practice, 47th. but perhaps more troubling is mitt romney's view of the nation. in the safety of a guilded fund raiser in florida he revealed what he thinks of this country. here's what he said in his own words. >> there are 47% who are with him. who are dependent upon government who believe they are victims, who believe government has a responsibility to care for them. that they're entitled to health care, food, housing, you name it. >> mr. r